A Colloquium on Mutual Views and Changing
Relations between Christians and Muslims The Office on Inter-Religious Relations organized, in collaboration with the Centre for Christian-Muslim Studies, University of Balamand, Lebanon, a colloquium on "Mutual Views and Changing
Relations between Christians and Muslims", 27-29 August 1997. Twenty-five participants, mostly
professors in the areas of Islamic and Christian-Muslim studies, came from twelve countries in
Africa, the Arab World, Asia, Europe and the USA..

The papers presented by a large number of participants highlighted the changes in Christian-Muslim
relations during the last thirty years. Some assessed the significance of dialogue and scholarship
and its impact on those relations, privileging a thematic focus or a regional perspective. Others
chose to concentrate on recent Christian and Muslim writings, dialogical and polemical, or on the
intellectual and practical experience of their own institutions.

The discussions of the colloquium contributed to the broader effort, presently underway, of
examining critically the problems confronted in the encounter of Christians and Muslims and
identifying, in a forward-looking perspective, areas for study, dialogue and cooperation.

A Consultation on Cooperation in Christian-Muslim
Studies
The Office on Inter-Religious Relations organized a Consultation on "Cooperation in Christian-Muslim Studies", held in Balamand, Lebanon, 29-31 August 1997.

Twenty Christian and Muslim participants, including representatives of specialized university centres
or church-related institutions (see list), shared information and exchanged views on their experience,
present activities and future plans. They discussed a number of concrete proposals for collaboration
and agreed on developing a mechanism of regular communication and coordination.

The list of Institutions represented in the Consultation:

Al Al Bayt University, Jordan

Centre for Christian-Muslim Studies, University of Balamand, Balamand, Lebanon

Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Selly Oak, Birmingham, U.K.

Christian Study Centre, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Department of Religion, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

Faculty of Theology, Amsterdam Free University, Netherlands

Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, Turin, Italy

Groupe de Recherches Islamo-Chrétien,

Henry Martyn Institute of Islamic Studies, Hyderabad, India

Higher Institute of Islamic Studies-Maqassid, Beirut, Lebanon

Institute of Islamic Studies, Bombay, India

Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon

Macdonald Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford, USA

Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome, Italy

Project on Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

Silsilah Dialogue Movement, Philippines

An Observatory of Christian-Muslim Relations in Lebanon
Despite the many conflicts that tore Lebanon during the period 1975-1990, and in many
ways because of them, much is presently said about a renewed vocation for the country
as a privileged space for Christian-Muslim encounter and dialogue. This is often
expressed as a reaffirmation of a sort of historical role in bridge-building between
Muslims and Christians that many Lebanese like to attribute, not without reason, to
their country. Such a reaffirmation is manifested by an increasing number of initiatives
in dialogue and cooperation motivated by a national discourse praising the riches and
promises of a "shared living". These initiatives, whether they engage actively in a
"dialogue of ideas" or not, often state the primacy of the "dialogue of life".

A collective of multi-disciplinary research was created in 1996, in an unprecedented
effort to observe and analyse critically, the changing Christian-Muslim relations:
tensions, exchanges, inter-actions, and mutual images, not only in the political and
religious realm but also in demography, housing, economy, legislation, education,
media....A contextualized reflection, stemming from such analysis, hopes to identify the
concrete possibilities and challenges of reconstructing national unity. It likewise seeks
a better communication on the Lebanese experience, in relation to the experience of
other religiously pluralist societies, and on its relevance for Christian-Muslim dialogue
in the Arab World and at the international level.

This collective chose to be called Marqab Al 'Aych al Mushtarak fi Lubnan
(The Observatory of Shared Living in Lebanon). In October 1997 it published the first
issue of its journal Al Marqab, with studies touching on diverse societal issues
including the Beirut reconstruction project, the new educational structure, relations
between religious institutions, the Catholic Synod on Lebanon, confessional aspects
of Lebanon's economy, the juridical status of Lebanese confessions, the impact of 1996
elections on Christian-Muslim relations, the Israeli "Grapes of Wrath" in 1996 and its
effects on solidarity between Lebanese. The issue also includes a chronology of
events and a bibliography.

The Observatory was set in place by the Centre for Christian-Muslim Studies at the
Orthodox University of Balamand. Founded in 1995, the Centre has initiated, in
addition, an educational programme, starting with an annual Christian-Muslim summer
school, as well as a research project on modern mutual images of Christianity and
Islam. The Centre has also convened an international Consultation on Christian-Muslim Studies and co-organized and hosted a colloquium on "Mutual Views and
Changing Relations between Christians and Muslims".